Despite no racing on Friday 22 August the Opening Series has now concluded and all eyes will be on the final stage of the event on Saturday 23 August.


A non discardable, single race for all fleets will bring the YOG Sailing Competition to a close with gold, silver and bronze to be decided in the Girl’s and Boy’s Byte CII and Techno 293.[more]


The decision to abandon the day of racing was made at 16:30 local time with the breeze on Lake Jinniu not materialising for the second consecutive day. Reports vary for the final day of the competition with some predicting 1-2 knots and other saying 3-6 knots. It will be a case of wait and see on the final day. If racing does not go ahead then Sunday 24 August can be used to complete the competition.


With sailors unable to lose the final race result the stakes and pressure will be high on the final day with those gunning for the medals aiming for good night of refuelling, rest, recuperation and sleep.


China’s Linli Wu is perfectly primed to take gold for her nation in the Girl’s Techno 293 fleet. The Chinese sailor is seven points clear of Russia’s Mariam Sekhposyan and France’s Lucia Pianazza and needs to finish seventh or better to claim gold. Wu has yet to finish outside of the top seven and has mastered the light winds of Lake Jinniu so she will be hard to overthrow on the final day.


Behind Sekhposyan and Pianazza, who are tied on 16 points, Aimee Van’t Hoff (NED) has 22 points and Duangkamon Phongern (THA) has 31 points. The Dutch sailor will need to put in a good performance to take a medal whilst the Thai racer would need to win the race and hope the others finish at the back of the pack.


It is all to play for in the Boy’s Techno 293 with eight points separating the top seven. As it stands, Russia’s Maxim Tokarev is at the top of the pack on 16 points but that will count for very little on the final day with Argentina’s Francisco Saubidet Birkner a point behind and Dutch sailor Lars van Someren on 19 points.


Israel’s Yoav Omer sits on 22, France’s Tom Monnet and Hong Kong’s Tsz Kit Chan have 23 and New Zealand’s Finn Croft has 24 points. The top racers have shared the victories over the six race period and it will be game on for gold on the final day.


Racing is scheduled to commence at 11:00 local time on Saturday 23 August. The Byte CII fleets will take to the race course first followed by the Techno 293 fleets.


ISAF Website
http://www.sailing.org/events/youtholympicgames/index.php
Results
www.sailing.org/events/youtholympicgames/results/index.php
Nanjing 2014 Website
http://www.nanjing2014.org/en/
Sailracer
http://events.sailracer.org/eventsites/new1.asp?eventid=195298